Actics Blog

I recently read about a really interesting experiment called the ultimatum game. It goes like this: person A is given 10 one-dollar bills and can offer person B any number of them. B can then either accept or reject A’s offer. If B accepts, A and B get what was offered. If on the other hand B turns the offer down, each person gets nothing.

What makes this experiment so interesting? Well, if human beings really were ‘rationally self-interested invidividuals’- the homines economici of classical economic theory- then the game should go like this: A should only offer B 1 dollar and hang on to the rest. And B should accept A’s offer, since getting 1 dollar is better than nothing.

So is that what actually happens? No, not at all. Practice has shown that most A players offer B close to half the total. And B players who are offered only one or two dollars generally turn the offer down. Amazing, isn’t it? Even in a simple game like the ultimatum game, it seems that people are not primarily motivated by greed and self-interest but rather by values like ‘fairness’. Maybe it’s time at last to say goodbye to the homo economicus model and welcome in homo ethicus.

Are we at Actics right in thinking that the corporate world is becoming more and more aware of the importance of values and social responsibility? Here are some encouraging quotes I came across recently while reading through some books on business ethics:

“What we’ve learned is that the soft stuff and the hard stuff are becoming increasingly intertwined. A company’s values- what it stands for, what its people believe in- are crucial to its competitive success. Indeed, values drive the business.” (Robert D. Haas, former Chairman of Levi Strauss & Co.)

“There is a difference between a good company and a great company. A good company offers excellent products and services. A great company also offers excellent products and services but also strives to make the world a better place.” (William Clay Ford, Jr., Chairman of Ford Motor Company)

“I honestly believe that the winning companies of this century will be those who prove with their actions that they can be profitable and increase social value- companies that both do well and do good… Increasingly, shareowners, customers, partners, and employees are going to vote with their feet- rewarding those companies that fuel social change through business.” (Carly Fiorina, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard)

Just words or are we really seeing a major change in corporate behaviour? For anyone who wants to check it out and decide for him/herself, here are some links to the values efforts of the companies quoted above: Levi Strauss, Ford, and HP.

We are looking for an enthusiastic Web Development Manager who can take charge of our next generation product offerings.

Check out the postings here.

More and more people are arguing that 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the business community really discovered sustainability. We read about these news every day, Apple begins to tackle its bad sustainability record, even WalMart pronounces sustainability to be a major concern.

A recent paper sponsored by BT and Sisco: ‘A new mindset for corporate sustainability’ (and available here) points at three major aspects of this shift in business mindsets.

* Boardroom commitment to sustainability helps build a framework for robust corporate governance.

* Investors are becoming increasingly receptive to sustainability.

* Sustainability offers a proven and legitimate framework for exploiting new avenues for innovation.

(via EthicalCorporation)

What will come out of this? Will the US recession trigger a new New Deal organized around sustainability and Green Capitalism? Will this be a way for the west to maintain its position vis-a-vis energy-intensive China? It’s a possibility.

Next move form the evil empire. Microsoft has patented extensions software that will monitor the physical state and levels of concentration of employees, through wireless sensors connected to their PCs, laptops and even mobile phones. (As if Vista wasn’t enough…)Measuring heartbeats, body temperature, movements, blood pressure and facial expressions, employers can get  continuous info on the physical state and affective attitudes of their employees, even when they’re out of the office. Getting angry at the computer or even not showing the appropriate expression of enthusiasm while reading the company values, or seeing the logo will now be noticed and recorded. Microsoft’s vice president of intellectual property, Horacio Gutierrez writes off the Orweillian potential of this project by claiming that its uses lie in alerting medical personnel to impending heart-attacks. ‘Privacy is an important priority for Microsoft’ he concludes. Yeah, and war is peace too .

here for full story

Hu Jintao, in his speech at the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party stresses the importance of Culture, both for national cohesion and as a development tool.He emphasies committment to spreading internet access, promoting Chinese Creative Industries and realizing a Chinese Experience Economy!

some quotes

“Culture has become a more and more important source of national
cohesion and creativity and a factor of growing significance in the
competition in overall national strength,”

“…to vigorously develop the cultural industry, launch major
projects to lead the industry as a whole, speed up the development of
cultural industry bases and clusters of cultural industries with
regional features, nurture key enterprises and strategic investors,
create a thriving cultural market and enhance the industry’s
international competitiveness”

“…to establish a national system of honors for outstanding cultural
workers”

The ultra-cool XO laptop from the ‘One Laptop per Child’ project will be commercially available from Nobvember 12th. It works like this, you buy two laptops, one is donated to a child and the other is shipped to you. Price about $ 380 for both of them. Given the ridiculously cheap dollar this is a really good deal (apart form being ethically sound). The thing is a design marvel, with ultrasensitive wifi antenna (detecting a network where you ordinary pc is blind) and a screen that’s perfect for reading e-books in the sun.

get it here

I’ve been away from this blog for quite some time, first in Italy getting married, then in Shanghai for a month researching Chinese creative industries and teaching students about Web 2.0. Quite another planet. The chinese government are very keen to build creative industry parks and zone old abandoned factories as new latte havens. (And where there aren’t enough old abandoned factories, they build new old abandoned factories…)

We’re happy to have Michel Bauwens with us once again, this time it is free and everybody’s wellcome

PEER TO PEER AND USER-LED SOCIAL INNOVATION.

Gå hjem møde- After work seminar

with
Michel Bauwens, founder of the Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives (www.p2pfoundation.net)

Friday June 8th, 15.30-17.00
Nye KUA, bygning 23 – University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, building 23
room: 23.0.49
Njalsgade
(for queries and info. contact Adam Arvidsson, arvidsson@hum.ku.dk, 26174875)

‘Information and communication technologies have unleashed the creativity of users, consumers and other members of the public. The cost of designing, producing and distributing creative products is rapidly diminishing. So far this has had a revolutionizing impact on the creative industries, on innovation and product development and on knowledge production in general. But do these new relations of production have the potential to move beyond today’s social order? What kind of political thought and what sort of social institutions can come out of such diffused production systems? ‘

Michel Bauwens is one of the world’s leading experts on such peer-to-peer systems. He has published widely on the political economy of peer production (http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499)and runs the foundation for peer to peer alternatives (www.p2pfoundation.net), the worlds leading information resource on the economic, social and political implications of peer-to-peer production

Percy Barnevik, ‘Europe’s hottest business executive of the 1990s’  has set up his own micro finance organization hand in hand, building on trend to foster development by encouraging grass root entrepreneurship.

Hand in Hand follows a broadly similar agenda to other microcredit initiatives that attempt to alleviate poverty through female entrepreneurship and education, its strategy is based on
Mobilising the poorest women, who are largely illiterate, into self-help groups led by   full-time business consultants.

Put child labourers in schools.
Equip “citizen centres” with books, computers and internet connections.
Provide access ot medical treatment.
Improve the local environment.